Real Madrid to play in China in August - officials

Real Madrid will play a team of top Chinese players in an exhibition match in Beijing in August, sport officials said on Monday.

The Spanish club will take on the so-called "Dragon Team", a squad mainly of Chinese national team players, on August 2 at the Workers' Stadium, Beijing sport and soccer officials told Reuters.

Real may also spend a week training for the match in late July in the southwestern city of Kunming, where their club representatives inspected the training base of Chinese A League side Yunnan Hongta at the weekend, a Hongta official said.

"I have no idea if they are going to use the base. They'll leave here tomorrow," the official said.

Real, who boost several of the world's leading players including Ronaldo, Figo and Roberto Carlos, could be the first professional club to visit soccer-mad China since the outbreak of SARS forced a spate of cancellations.

Soccer's world governing body moved the women's World Cup from China to the United States after the epidemic struck.

German champions Bayern Munich and English Premier league Liverpool also scrapped friendly matches planned for July.

Journalists and fans pick China's Dragon Team annually from among the best players on the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, said Chen Wei, an official of the Beijing Football Association

"Most players are from China's National Team and Olympic Team," he said. "This year's Dragon Team players will be known at the end of June."